Akron (pronounced /ˈækrən/) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. The municipality is situated on the Ohio and Erie Canal and Little Cuyahoga River, approximately 39 miles south of Cleveland midway between New York City and Chicago. As of 2000, the city proper had a total population of 217,074, being the fifth largest city in Ohio and 81st in the United States. The Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area, covers both, Summit and Portage counties. In 2000, the area had a population of 694,960 and in 2009, estimates placed the population at 699,935. Akron is also part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which in 2000 had a population of 2,945,831, and ranked as the country's 14th largest. Like many former urban manufacturing centers of the U.S. Rust Belt, Akron's population has declined, falling from a peak of 290,351 in 1960, to just over two-thirds of that today.
